Ssms Utility

The Ssms utility opens SQL Server Management Studio. If specified, Ssms also establishes a connection to a server, and opens queries, scripts, files, projects, and solutions.

You can specify files that contain queries, projects, or solutions. Files that contain queries are automatically connected to a server if connection information is provided and the file type is associated with that type of server. For instance, .sql files will open a SQL Query Editor window in SQL Server Management Studio, and .mdx files will open an MDX Query Editor window in SQL Server Management Studio. SQL Server Solutions and Projects will open in SQL Server Management Studio.

Note

The Ssms utility does not run queries. To run queries from the command line, use the sqlcmd utility.

Specifies one or more script files to open. The parameter must contain the full path to the files.

projectfile

Specifies a script project to open. The parameter must contain the full path to the script project file.

solutionfile

Specifies a solution to open. The parameter must contain the full path to the solution file.

[-S servername]

Server name

[-d databasename]

Database name

[-U username]

User name when connecting with SQL Server Authentication

[-P password]

Password when connecting with SQL Server Authentication

[-E]

Connect using Windows Authentication

[-nosplash]

Prevents SQL Server Management Studio from displaying the splash screen graphic while opening. Use this option when connecting to the computer running SQL Server Management Studio by means of Terminal Services over a connection with a limited bandwidth. This argument is not case-sensitive and may appear before or after other arguments

All of the switches are optional and separated by a space except files which are separated by commas. If you do not specify any switches, Ssms opens SQL Server Management Studio as specified in the Options settings on the Toolsmenu. For example, if the Environment/General page At startup option specifies Open new query window, Ssms will open with a blank Query Editor.

The -log switch must appear at the end of the command line, after all other switches. The filename argument is optional. If a filename is specified, and the file does not exist, the file is created. If the file cannot be created – for example, due to insufficient write access, the log is written to the nonlocalized APPDATA location instead (See below). If the filename argument is not specified, two files are written to the current user's nonlocalized application data folder. The nonlocalized application data folder for SQL Server can be found from the APPDATA environment variable. For example, for SQL Server 2012, the folder is <system drive>:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\AppEnv\10.0\. The two files are, by default, named ActivityLog.xml and ActivityLog.xsl. The former contains the activity log data and the latter is an XML style sheet which provides a more convenient way to view the XML file. Use the following steps to view the log file in your default XML viewer, like Internet Explorer: Click Start, then click Run...", then type “<system drive>:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\AppEnv\10.0\ActivityLog.xml” into the field provided, and then press Enter.

Files that contain queries will prompt to be connected to a server if connection information is provided and the file type is associated with that type of server. For instance, .sql files will open a SQL Query Editor window in SQL Server Management Studio, and .mdx files will open an MDX Query Editor window in SQL Server Management Studio. SQL Server Solutions and Projects will open in SQL Server Management Studio.

The following script opens SQL Server Management Studio from a command prompt, with Windows Authentication, with the Code Editor set to the server ACCTG and the database AdventureWorks2012, without showing the splash screen: